"My team mates prepared the sprint in the best way and thanks to them I could avoid the crash. The position in the approach of the sprint was very good, I was in the slipstream of the train of Greipel: I waited he made the first move, then I tried to overtake him, but André was great. I don’t think I could do anything better, so my best compliments to Greipel.”

“In my opinion, it seemed that a crash could have happened at 30km to go. Something like that is always possible. We were going 60km/h, we had the wind at our back, there were thousands of spectators, there's a lot of road dividers, and the whole peloton was going fast... it was already hectic a long way before the finish. But the riders know that the closer we get to the end, the more risky it gets – only the smallest thing can happen and riders will fall and crash.”

Jens Voigt (RadioShack Nissan) on the pileup near the end:

“Luckily it was inside the three km to go marker so everybody will have the same time. If it had happened 300 metres sooner, we would have lost the yellow jersey. We were also lucky to not be in any of the crashes, so we defended the jersey and stayed safe. Once again, mission accomplished. It was a good day for us.”

Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team, best young rider), speaking about the same crash:

"You don't really have time to think. You're just holding your brakes and trying to stay balanced. I was lucky I didn't go down and that it was inside three kilometres, so we got the same time."

Bauke Mollema (Rabobank co-leader), once again talking about the same crash:

“I had to slam on the brakes. I was up among the front thirty riders in the peloton and kept a little space in front of me in case I needed to brake. Luckily I came to a stop just in time.

“[Earlier on] the wind was not too strong, so there wasn’t much going on. The tempo was also pretty moderate – you could call it a boring stage, if you want. I myself don’t happen to mind at all. The next few weeks are going to be hard enough.”

"We saw last year it was really important to have the Classics guys, especially in the first week. You have a lot of crashes and you can have some crosswinds, so you must be prepared. I'm not sure if you can do that with a team of just climbers.

“In a way a day like this [which is over five hours of racing] is easier – it certainly is when you go through the data on your SRM files but on the other hand, for the mind it's not easy. It's even harder because the parcours is always the same and you've already spoken a lot with the guys. You think about eating, you eat. And then, sometimes it can feel like long hours but it's the Tour, and if you have the [yellow] jersey it's special.

“I even had a chance to say hello to the camera and wave to people who are watching all over the world... I have a good friend over in Hawaii who is watching the Tour de France and I got to say hello today. That's how it is. Every day is different and I try to enjoy it.”